Twinings plans to double sales

Twinings India""part of the Associated British Foods, United Kingdom""is looking double its business in the next three years.

Suresh Iyer, managing director, Twinings said, the company had lined up a multi-pronged strategy to drive its growth plan in India.

Among the major initiatives would be the health and wellness segment. Iyer pointed out that Twinings had the widest variety in green tea.

Twinings also plans to expand its dedicated business-to-business channels with an exclusive tie-up with Lavazza, which recently acquired Barista. The other B2B partners were ITC hotels, Jet Airways' international flights as well as Kingfisher Airlines' business class.

Iyer said, geographic expansion across the country would be another initiative towards achieving growth.

At present, Twinings was available in a significant manner across the top six cities, in a reasonable way in the top 15 cities and marginally in 30 cities in India.

The idea was to take it 100 cities in a major way, said Iyer.

The variants of Twinings tea available in India are Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Classic Assam, Assam.

Among flavoured teas, the variants are lemon and cardamom.

However, globally Twinings sells 200 different blends of tea of tea in 115 countries.

Iyer said, the company would embark on a continuous launch phase.

Twinings enjoys around a 33 per cent market share in the premium teabag category in the modern trade.

Twinings has a factory in Kolkata, which is among the four in the world. The company has lined up a fifth facility but is yet to decide on the location.